Basketball is certainly more popular among fans. Look at Jersey sales, you think people buy more hockey jerseys than Kobe, Lebron, Wade, Rose, Jordan jerseys. Not in a million years. Basketball is probably the third most popular behind football and baseball but certainly more popular than hockey.Posted by prob2236

It depends on the city. Personally I find it impossible to watch a game that takes 30 minutes (real time) to play the last minute or two of game time.

Bottom line -- like hockey or not -- people need to respect what exactly these guys do on the ice. There is no other sport that combines skill, athleticism and guts than hockey. And please don't give me the old hitting a baseball or playing golf routine.

Some very good points here. On top of those, its always been my belief that the fight for the sport dollar is controlled mostly by the major netwerks who work deals with thier sporting products, the NFL, MLB and NBA. We`re dealing with a private club (s) and they`re not going to let anyone else in.The Islanders are not just fighting the Rangers for NY sports dollars, they`re fighting the Jets, Giants, Mets, Yankees, and Knicks. In order to get a bigger market share they need the netwerks, but the netwerks don`t want to give up what they`ve already got.Bottom line, free market aint always democratic!

Hockey IS a better sport, it lacks popularity for 2 reasons.1) Bad marketing.2) You actually have to pay attention to understand it.

As for naming 90% of the players in the NHL, that's 1 addressed in #1 and 2 completely irrelevent. I doubt most of the guys who write nationally for MLB or NFL could name 90% of the players in those leagues.

Hell, i watch over 100 regular season NHL games a year and I think I'd be lucky to rattle off 100 players names, but I could probably get at least one or two on every team.

This is a follow up question from yesterday where I asked if the Stanley cup was the greatest trophy a championship team could earn and everyone said without a doubt yes. But if the cup is such a prize, the cup playoffs are such a spectacle, and hockey really has every a great game would have. Even we as boston fans rank this championship up amongst are greatest ever for any team. So why is hockey the least popular sport compared to football, basketball and baseball in this country. Lets face it football is huge in this country, as is baseball and basketball. In a lockout I can watch NFL once a week but my body who lives in Boston couldnt watch have the cup finals because he doesnt have VS network. I bet fans around the US cant name 90% of the hockey players who play in the NHL. Not just that but of great athletes from the other leagues hockey superstars again are on the bottom of the totem pole. Crosby and Ovechkin are no were near as big as Brady, Manning, Lebron, A-Rod, David Ortiz but they are certainly just as dominant in there respective sport. I bet you most casual sports fan around the US couldnt pick Martin Brodeur out of a lineup but any 17 year old girl whos even heard of basketball would be able to point out Dwayne Wade. So why if hockey is such a great game, and it is, is it so unpopular compared to other leagues?Posted by prob2236

You could ask the same of soccer, which is probably the world's most popular team sport but has never really caught on in the US or Canada. I think the biggest factor in any sport's popularity is tradition. I never really was into hockey all that much when I lived in the US, but now that I've moved to Canada I find I watch it more and more. I think it's just that everyone here is so into it, it's hard not to start paying attention. I'm a huge football fan and that's always going to be my favorite sport, but hockey is rapidly becoming my second favorite sport. I think the whole reason I've started to like hockey so much is that I now live in a place where everyone is fanatical about the sport and that's made me pay more attention to it. And the more I watch and understand it, the more I discover I really like it.

Hockey could catch on more broadly in the US, but the fact that it always will be primarily a cold weather sport is going to make that difficult. A lot of people don't ice skate, and those people are not going to find connecting with a game played on ice all that natural. Also--with the notable exception of football--most sports can be pretty dull on TV unless you're really into them. Soccer, basketball, and hockey are really all the same basic concept--guys moving up and down a court/rink/field trying to kick, throw, or shoot a ball/puck into a goal. On an average-sized TV, what you see in all of these sports is a lot of (tiny) guys moving around a lot. This isn't really all that interesting until you start to understand the subtleties of the game and start to have players and teams you can root for. Then it gets more exciting. The problem, though, is most of us need that social context--where other people are interested in the game too and want to talk about it--to get us started watching the game seriously. If the tradition, the social context, just isn't there, it's hard to get past the initial apparent dullness of the game on TV and start to take it seriously enough to understand why it really can be hugely exciting. With hockey in the US, I think that lack of tradition is the major problem . . . move to a place where hockey's in the blood and all that changes. At least it changed for me.

The big problem is the Bruins never spent money and let good players go all of these years. I don't see how anyone could stand to be a Bruins fan all of those years they let good players go because they didn't want to spend the money and just rolled around the dregs of the league. They start getting decent prospects and they sell them off. It's good to finally see the Bruins hold some talent for more than one season. Posted by Macrawn

Can you give us just a couple of examples of players that left town due to money that were worth the money they received elsewhere? (Advice: Don't start with Bill Guerin.)

I've seen a lot of live hockey. The thing that is really lacking on TV is the sound of the game. Otherwise, if you haven't watched a lot on TV, I think it must be hard to follow the puck. Even with my trained eye, I didn't see TT's save on Downie. I thought he hit the post.As for football, TV seldom shows what the sport is really about. the QB throwing, the receiver cutting, and the CB closing. I didn't realize the precision of the passing game before I sold beer at the Orange Bowl. TV sometimes shows a long shot on replay.

In Response to Re: So why isnt hockey as great of a sport as the others in this country? : Can you give us just a couple of examples of players that left town due to money that were worth the money they received elsewhere? (Advice: Don't start with Bill Guerin.) This idea is simply a myth. Posted by Not-A-Shot

Not being the most popular sport isn't necessarily a bad thing.Its a quality over a quantity thing.Soccer is probably the world's most popular sport but does it really have anything to offer apart from mind numbing boredom,knee socks, whining, diving, dishonour, and emasculation?

There are several reasons why hockey lags behind football, baseball and, to a lesser extent, basketball.

First, and foremost, is the only major N.A. sport where a specific skill is required before you can even consider playing the game (skating). You can be the greatest road hockey dangler, have the most wicked wrist shot, but if you can't skate, you can't play in the NHL (or any league, for that matter). And since so few Americans know how to skate, they find it difficult to identify with the incredible skill level that NHL players have. Most guys have tried playing baseball, football, basketball or soccer -- you can do any of these in a field with a bunch of guys. But unless you've grown up with regular access to a rink, or lived in a place where ponds regularly freeze up in the winter, you don't have much experience with skating. It's this fundamental skill requirement which separates hockey from other sports.

Second, the puck is difficult to see, if you're not used to watching the game. All of the advertising on the ice and the boards doesn't help much. I was watching some "classic" games on NHLN, and despite the fuzzy video, was struck at how much easier it was to follow the puck. As much as we diehard hockey fans laughed at the "glowing puck", it was a way to make the sport more accessible to non-regular viewers. And certainly HD has improved things a lot. I don't agree, however, with the suggestion that the sport is complicated. I have a much easier time explaining hockey to first-time viewers than football (now that's a tough sport for newbies to understand!).

Finally, there's the "kids playing" angle, which I totally agree with. When kids play, kids watch their heroes, and parents watch too, to get acquainted with the game. The best thing any franchise in a non-traditional hockey market can do is to encourage the construction of rinks, the formation of kids' leagues, and to get out there an do community outreach work to get kids playing. Contributions by teams and players to funds which aim to reduce the entry cost barriers for first-timers would help as well. Develop the grass roots, and the fans will come.

Because Americans have trouble understanding a sport with a goalie. Or any sport that features only one way to score. i.e. put the puck in the net = 1 goal (1 point). If Americans had invented hockey, a goal would be worth 3 points, hit the post = 1 point, and hit the crossbar = 2 points. Therefore, you could win even if you score less goals than your opponent. Americans can understand that.Posted by Wheatskins

That is funny, but in many ways true. Hockey is a sport like European football, stuctured with a goalie as stated. The difference to me is the skill to play the game. I would argue it is more difficult to play hockey than baseball. Most media pundits say it is the batting average of baseball that indicates the difficulty of the game. I laugh, it is more difficult to score a goal. Look it is very difficult to be on skates and shoot a puck to another player let alone to the eventual scorer. There is no other game more difficult to play period. It is also very fast and an error in hockey has more obvious consequences than Euorpean football. I love basketball, college, but the game does not require the greatest of skill, it is played on the floor with passing more controlled and patterned. Plenty of scoring too, which makes the casual fan connected. Randomly speaking, I am very preturbed at talk shows, like D & C, that ask the question which sport is most lucky. Sports idiots. Hockey is not lucky, you gain luck by being in the position to score, make a save, etc. Playing hockey is not simply lucky! Lastly, if a person goes to a hockey game knowing the basic rules, then that person is won over easily the speed, and skill of these players. No question it is the best live game!